59 Songs About Walls

Each of us is a bricklayer, building defensive walls of ideas and feelings. They insulate our soft egos and seal off that vulnerable part of ourselves from one another as effectively as physical barriers. What do you hide behind your wall?

We build walls when we feel threatened. What do you fear?

Explore walls in pop, rock, country, folk, and metal music with this playlist. We take a look at popular songs about building walls, tearing walls down, climbing the walls, writing on the walls, being a fly on the wall, putting your back to the wall and even more.

Probably the first song that comes to mind when you think of songs about walls is this classic rock ditty, right? A protest against rigid schooling, this 1979 worldwide chart-topper was named by Rolling Stone magazine as one of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time." The type of wall Pink Floyd is referring about is blind compliance and conformity.

Wall Lyrics:

All in all you're just another brick in the wall
All in all you're just another brick in the wall.

The dejected man in this 2016 rock ballad has torn down the emotional walls that protected his heart from breaking. He's laid his feelings on the line for the woman he loves and has left his heart exposed and vulnerable to rejection.

Unfortunately, his lover has crushed his spirits. You can bet those emotional walls will be built even higher when it comes to his next relationship.

Wall Lyrics:

When the walls come down
One by one I'm seein' them fall
Some just don't show up at all
I'm just here to fight the fire
Oh, a man ain't a man unless he has desire.

The narrator in this 1983 classic rock song features a man who feels dishonorably treated by a system that tries to break down his wall of self-respect and identity that he built through hard work. Authority has tried to break him down and has made him feel like their whipping boy.

Wall Lyrics:

Second best is what you get
'Til you learn to bend the rules
Time respects no person
And when you lift up must fall
They're waiting outside
To claim my crumblin' walls.

Reflecting both interpersonal and physical walls such as those that populate current events, this 2016 rock song makes a statement about standing up for those who need your help. The narrator describes learning from his parents about the importance of advocating for those less fortunate, including the lonely, the helpless, the hurting, and broken. Walls divide us, and he implores us to tear them down and build more bridges, as "these days we're all just looking for a place that we call home."

Wall Lyrics:

These walls are the mountains that we climb
These walls are the great divide
Brick by brick
Gonna watch them fall
Build more bridges
Tear down walls.

In this electronic pop song from 2018, the narrator describes himself as someone who has built walls around himself so that he wouldn't have to experience emotion. As a male, he has been conditioned to push pain down deep and make himself emotionally inaccessible.

However, now those defensive walls are weakening, and they're about to crash. He's in a dark place with his mental health, and he's reaching out across the fragile walls to receive love and understanding.

Ruben is a Norweigan artist. Watch for him to become the next big thing. I have a hunch about this one!

Wall Lyrics:

But the wind has changed
My walls are weakening
They're gonna fall soon
And I'm gonna need you.

Although this James Bond theme song received mixed reviews, the 2015 orchestral pop tune won both a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award. The phrase "writing's on the wall" references impending disaster. The narrator describes successfully sidestepping "misfortune" in the past, but he feels like this time will mark his undoing. He's talking about falling in love rather than actually dying, however.

Wall Lyrics:

Tell me is this where I give it all up?
For you I have to risk it all
'Cause the writing's on the wall.

When a marriage is on the rocks, the feuding spouses build a wall of discord and distrust between themselves with each snide remark, eye roll, and argument. Before long, the division is so high that they can't see the person they married. In this country song from 1993, husband crosses that wall of discord, seeking reconciliation. As he does so, the troubles that split them seem insignificant.

Wall Lyrics:

Tonight I climbed the wall
And took her by the hand
We'd come too far to fall
Couldn't stand to see it end
So tonight I climbed the wall.

Did you know that "balls to the wall" is an expression that comes from military aviation? The controls of the plane have ball-shaped grips, and when a pilot exerts maximum pressure by pushing the controls to the plane's firewall, it's "balls to the wall." The phrase means the equivalent of pushing the pedal to the medal or "going all out."

In this 1984 heavy metal song, the German band Accept takes an interest in human rights and politics. They warn that one day oppressed and tortured people among us will unite, then they'll rise up and turn upon their persecutors. At that time, according to the song, you'll exert maximum energy to escape their vengeance.

Wall Lyrics:

You better watch the damned (God bless ya)
They're gonna break their chains (Hey)
No, you can't stop them (God bless ya)
They're coming to get you
And then you'll get your
Balls to the wall, man
Balls to the wall.

The lead singer composed this 1997 rock song when he was working in a mental institution. The haunting nature of its chiming sounds and dragging pace remind me of a mentally ill person who is heavily medicated.

The phrase "climbing up the walls" refers to reaching a point of distress, anxiety, or annoyance to the point of frenzy. The song cryptically references secrets, eccentricities, and fears that other people—those outside one's mind—cannot detect but which the protagonist knows are there. He's can't stop the climbing up his walls.

Wall Lyrics:

Open up your skull
I'll be there
Climbing up the walls.

The girl in this pop song from 2008 chastises her love interest for his unfounded jealousy. He wants to know too much about her life when they are apart. The overly inquisitive suitor tries to discover what she talks about with her friends and whether she's flirting with other guys.

"A fly on the wall" means that you're able to listen in on conversations undetected.

Wall Lyrics:

Don't you wish that you could be a fly on the wall
A creepy little, sneaky little, fly on the wall?
All my precious secrets, yeah
You'd know them all.

This tune is a 2017 cover of Anaïs Mitchell's sobering statement from her folk opera. It describes what the border wall represents. (Yep, they're talking about that wall.)

In a circular argument, the narrator explains that the wall keeps us free from the enemy, which is poverty. We have work and "they" have none. They want what we have, but we'll always have this wall to work upon. The wall keeps the enemy out, and we'll never be done.

Wall Lyrics:

The enemy is poverty
And the wall keeps out the enemy
And we build the wall to keep us free
That's why we build the wall.

There's a fine line between having a crush on someone and being obsessive, and the voyeuristic narrator in this 2008 pop tune leaped way over it. The creepster dreams of being a fly on the wall so that she can watch over the man she loves when he is:

• naked in the shower
• taking a nap
• canoodling with his lover
• undressing or
• gazing in the mirror.

How creepy! The narrator describes arriving, silently undetected. It's clear that she's thought this fly on the wall fantasy out so thoroughly that perhaps it's a plan for stalking him. (Unwanted attention can make you want to build a secure perimeter—a fence, a wall, some kind of barrier!)

Wall Lyrics:

Oh, I wish I was a fly on the wall
Silently I arrive
You don't know I'm alive.

The underlying message in this 2017 rock song is that the vibe you give off is not transparent. Rather, others can clearly detect your intent. Negative energy and insults hurled towards others will rebound upon you eventually. Karma, baby. It all adds up.

Wall Lyrics:

And I don't mean to be unkind
But I see what's in your mind
And the stone you throw
Will turn back in its path
One day you'll shatter like a wall of glass.

Depending on your perspective, walls divide and separate, or they provide defense and security. In this 2017 rock song, the narrator provides social commentary that major countries of the world like Russia, America, and Great Britain are carving up the world by building walls. According to the song, nations built walls that are tall, long, and big, and they divide people bitterly. Then, the builders hide behind those walls in fear of people on the other side.

Wall Lyrics:

Trouble at the border, in the eleventh hour
Ditch and wire and palisade in the line of fire
Call up the cavalry and double up the guard
Plan for catastrophe inside the house of cards.

The heart sore guy in this 2010 country song doesn't want to be hurt again, so he built a wall around his heart and locked it up tight. Given the height and strength of the wall, he believed no one could breach it, but then he met a special lady who was up to the challenge. With enough patience and trust, her love reached higher than the wall he built, and she freed him from the prison he had been living in.

Wall Lyrics:

There are walls made of paper, and walls made of stone
And some that are made out of livin' alone
I built a wall no one could break down
Locked up my heart where it couldn't be found.

There's often a wall of silence when it comes to domestic violence—a reluctance to become involved. Bystanders may fear that speaking up means they are interfering in a couple's relationship or that nothing will be done. But wouldn't you want someone to call for help if you were being beaten within inches of your life?

In this haunting 1988 folk song, the narrator hears neighbors' violent domestic dispute through their thin apartment walls. Having called the police in the past, however, she skips the 911 call this time and tells herself it's fruitless. In the morning, an ambulance in the street forces her to second guess her fateful decision.

Wall Lyrics:

Last night I heard the screaming
Loud voices behind the wall
Another sleepless night for me
It won't do no good to call
The police always come late
If they come at all.

The narrator in this rock song from 1988 has her back to the wall, meaning she has reached a point of desperation in which she feels cornered. Anything is possible, she warns, so don't pile additional stress on her. At least she has warned you.

Wall Lyrics:

Don't push, don't shove
Better watch what you do
When my back's to the wall
I might do anything at all
When my back's to the wall
I might take any chance at all
When my back's to the wall
I might do anything.

Country legend George Jones recorded this wall song in 1993 about a man who used to stand in darkness, with his back against the wall. He had suffered in love and was afraid to try again, thus he walled off his feelings. The narrator believed he'd die a lonely man, but luckily he met his clever sweetheart who found a door through his unscalable wall. Thereafter, it was easy to tear down the fortress brick by brick.

Wall Lyrics:

Not a thing can come between us
If we always keep in mind that
You can build 'em strong and tall but walls can fall

No one really knows what goes on behind closed doors except the walls. In this 2018 pop tune, the narrator is grateful that walls cannot speak because of the secrets they've heard and what they've witnessed.

Wall Lyrics:

If these walls could talk
I'd hope they wouldn't say anything
Because they've seen way too many things.

When someone starts to count flowers on the wall (regardless of whether they're actually there), that's usually a good sign that the elevator no longer goes to the top anymore. This 1966 country classic describes a man's daily routine at a mental institution he's staying in.

He smokes cigarettes, watches children's television, plays solitaire, and counts the decorations on the wall. (Hopefully, there's wallpaper instead of a solid painted wall.) If you've ever visited someone in a psychiatric facility, you know the song's depiction is reasonable.

Wall Lyrics:

Countin' flowers on the wall
That don't bother me at all
Playin' solitaire till dawn with a deck of fifty-one
Smokin' cigarettes and watchin' Captain Kangaroo
Now don't tell me I've nothin' to do.